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Thursday, January 7, 2010

PHILIP K. DICK VS. GOOGLE

Continuing the "versus" theme from earlier, I took both of these from Slashfilm (one of the only movie sites I read).

P.S. If I can't get an iPhone (because I couldn't bare to go back to AT&T), this looks like the next best thing. Therefore, I want one. Also, Blade Runner is an excellent movie and some of Harrison Ford's finest work.

Slashfilm -- Google have decided to call their new cellphone the Nexus One which suggests it’s a full five… er… Nexuses not as good as those naughty Replicants that gave Rick Deckard such trouble in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, filmed as Blade Runner. This comparison has not been lost on the estate of author Philip K. Dick who have launched a law suit against the company.

There are a great many other products and companies called Nexus this and Nexus that, from a Tyne and Wear subway system to a manufacturer of “custom designed plugs, jacks and switches”. The difference here is that Google have gone for Nexus ‘Number’ and, according to The Wall Street Journal, “the association between the phone and the book are cemented by the fact that the Nexus One runs Google’s Android operating system”. Yes - Android. I think that word is in the book too. Tsk.

Okay, so Google probably are trying to foster associations to Sheep but, really, isn’t this just a vague nod, never likely to confuse consumers into assuming an official endorsement? Should they really be forced to stump up heaps of cash for it? It’s not like a clothing manufacturer hawking Substance D branded “scramble” suits.